"But Kaiden gave me the next best thing."

His fingers curled around Maximilian's chin.

"You."

He leaned in.

"Right here."

He tapped the wall with a knuckle.

"In my territory."

"Y–your territory?!" Maximilian screamed from the top of his lungs, straining his vocal cords greatly. "This is not just any federal execution facility! This is the most notorious of them all! You don't have a territory here!"

Dante arched a brow, amused by the desperation. The gangster dad didn't quite understand why the man before him was trying to use logic to deny reality so much when the proof of it all was right in front of the obese fuck in the form of a ripped, tatted, revenge-craving bundle of violence.

Maximilian kept going, tripping over his own words.

"The warden!! The warden would never allow this! Do you have any idea who runs this place?! That man is a living legend! The Iron Shepherd! He's the one who survived the 'Titan Riot'! He personally put down thirty awakened mass murderers while sitting in his chair, not moving a finger! He… He's written into training manuals as the pristine image to follow! Getting in some contrabands or smaller favors is one thing, but you can't just do THIS under his watch!"

Dante let out a low, rolling chuckle.

"Surprise, Maxie, the inmate who lives here for years does indeed know 'im. The Iron Shepherd. Man keeps his guards on one heck of a tight leash, I'd know. It took a lot of effort to find the few crooks."

Maximilian seized onto that like a drowning man clutching driftwood.

"Exactly! Exactly, so you can't-"

"But…" Dante cut in, voice dipping into something dark and heavy.

"… Maxie, you drew the short end of the stick."

Max froze.

Dante spread his hands slightly, casual, almost apologetic.

"Would you look at that… turns out the Iron Shepherd also has a daughter."

His grin widened.

"Leia, was it…? Sounds like a lovely young gal."

Maximilian's lips twitched, color draining from his face so much he looked as if he was frozen in ice. He tried to stomp on the ground, but his knees wobbled, jerking like a puppet with cut strings. Then, his legs gave out completely.

But he didn't fall.

Dante's arm flashed forward, hand clamping around Maximilian's throat, catching him mid-collapse. Thick fingers dug in, lifting him just enough that his toes barely scraped the wet tile. Max's eyes bulged, spit spraying as he clawed at the wrist holding him up.

Needless to say, his attempts were useless.

"So," Dante went on conversationally, as if discussing weather, despite currently choking a naked man in the max security prison's shower facility, "This Leia girl turns out to be a true fanatic of a certain young man. She's been raving about said young man to daddy dearest for many months now. Can you guess who?"

Maximilian wheezed, voice shredded into a pitiful whine.

"N-no…"

Then panic detonated behind his eyes.

"No! No! NO! I refuse to believe this!"

Dante leaned closer, breath hot against his cheek, and spoke with cruel precision:

"Indeed, a certain 'extraterrestrial alien who uses weird powers to abuse young, innocent women, by enslaving them,' was it, Maxie?"

Before Max could spit out another denial, saying he misunderstood what was said in the conference, Dante's free hand whipped across his face. The slap cracked like a gunshot. Maximilian's head snapped sideways, blood and teeth splattering against the shower wall in a wet, ugly spray. His vision swam, ears ringing, throat still trapped in that unyielding grip.

Dante looked at the mess on the tiles, then back at him with a predator's calm.

"And she just adores him, Maxie."

He squeezed harder, forcing a gargled choke from Maximilian's ruined mouth.

Maximilian hung there like a stunned carcass, eyes unfocused and glassy. Blood poured from his split gums, running down his chin in thick ropes before dripping onto his chest and the tiles below. His breath came in wet, rattling bursts that were half-choke, half-sob. His limbs twitched uselessly, his mind clearly rattled loose from the hit, pupils swimming and uneven.

Dante watched him with idle curiosity, as though inspecting a broken appliance.

"Truly… A man's greatest weakness is his little girl," he mused, tone poetic. "No matter how strong one is, no matter how feared, no matter how many monsters they've killed or riots they've put down… their beautiful princesses rule over them without effort."

Max's head lolled, consciousness flickering like a faulty light. Dante gave a tiny shake of the wrist gripping his throat, just enough to snap his awareness back so he could hear.

"I don't know what sort of magic this Leia girl worked," Dante continued, voice dipped in amusement, "but she most certainly managed to soften her daddy's iron heart."

He leaned in, lowering his voice as if he was sharing a joke.

"Imagine my shock when I woke up today, and a man was standing in front of my cell, motionless, wearing a grave expression."

A short laugh.

"The Iron Shepherd himself. Wanted to talk."

Maximilian's eyes widened in disbelief, or terror, or both as he somehow returned to the world of the conscious. Drool mixed with blood trailed down his cheek.

"And well," Dante said, rolling his shoulders as though recounting a casual early morning, "a few hours later, here we fucking are."

He loosened his grip just enough for Max to suck in a strangled gulp of air, then tightened again so he couldn't speak.

"You've done a lot of bad things, Maxie. If even that man was willing to bend the rules…"

Dante's eyes narrowed, voice dropping to a low growl, "You said I must've called in a lot of favors, and while I was ready to do just that, turns out, I didn't need to do a single fucking thing. I'm even getting paid for my troubles with some face-to-face time with my girl and a month of outside food, ordered from a freaking menu. A damned menu, here, Maxie. Can you imagine that? This is the greatest deal of the century, I tell ya."

Max's lips trembled. No words came out, just a broken, animal-like wheeze.

Dante tilted his head, examining him.

"And the best part?" he added softly. "You still think someone's coming to save you. That if you manage to spin logic just the right way, I'll disappear."

A beat.

Water dripped. Blood pattered. No footsteps. No guards. No keys. No alarms.

Just Dante's hand around his throat.

Then Dante smiled, slow, merciless, satisfied.

"News flash, Maxie…"

He released the man from his grip.

"… nobody's coming."

Then his eyes traveled to the shower floor.

"Now turn around and pick up the soap."

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